


Are You My Mother?

by G_the_G



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 16:50:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6337321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/G_the_G/pseuds/G_the_G
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team comes back from Asgard, not aware that they brought back a new friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Are You My Mother?

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was going to be the intro to a soulmate short, but it just would NOT cooperate. Now we'll just have be a little gen short for all to enjoy.

Darcy heard the tower-side portal begin to hum and looked up expectantly as an assorted group of Avengers & Co. stumbled into the lab in various states of frustration. Jane had huffed that her space shouldn’t be invaded any time someone wanted to travel across a dimension, but she’d made the equipment huge and no one wanted to move it, so she was forced to deal with it.

Darcy, on the other hand couldn’t argue with her workspace having been turned into an unofficial transporter room. She got to see the comings and goings of the team and learn things she’d otherwise never hear about because they’d only make it into confidential reports. Like that one mission where Clint had accidentally gotten married without knowing it and Tony had lost half his hair. That had been a classic.

However, she didn’t think that day’s arrival would be quite as exciting since it was just the team returning earth-side before their official debrief after an off-world team-building exercise.

But Darcy was wrong.

It was totally going to prove an afternoon of juicy confrontation if Steve’s ‘Captain America Disapproves’ face, Bruce’s chagrin, and Tony’s obvious glee were anything to go by. Thor went to catch up with Jane on the other side of the room as Natasha, Clint, and Sam trudged out of the room in various states of disarray (read: Clint was a mess, Sam looked a bit tired, but Natasha was immaculate as always), but Darcy found herself staring at a surprisingly disheveled Captain America.

“You’re looking a bit woodsy there, Steve.”

Darcy gestured her hands at the various leaves and twigs sticking out of his shield harness.

Tony snickered.

“Turns out Brucey here really does mind when you eat his leftovers.”

“Huh?”

A couple more snickers slipped out before Tony could answer.

“Hulk knocked Captain Metabolism over here into a woodpile.”

Steve’s jaw tightened and Bruce rubbed the back of neck while staring at the floor.

“I’m sorry about that. I really didn’t care that much.”

“Your alter-ego would beg to differ,” Steve forced out as he began to pull leaves from his uniform.

Bruce shrugged apologetically and made a hasty escape.

To keep herself from joining Tony in his snickering, Darcy walked over to help Steve with his woodland debris.

However, Tony soon escalated to a full snort and rib holding, making Steve let out a sigh.

“Really, Stark? First you have to antagonize the Hulk when you realized he was upset, and now you’re gonna laugh about it?”

Tony began to howl, bending over and supporting himself with his hands on his knees.

“It was great. You should have seen it, Lewis. Captain Tight Pants here went head over heels into that pile like freaking olympic diver. Best damn thing I’ve seen all week.”

But Darcy wasn’t listening. She was distracted by a very odd scratching sound coming from Steve’s shield. He wasn’t paying it attention though, probably assuming the sound was from her pulling leaves and sticks out.

“Uh, Steve?”

“And another thing, Stark--”

A small white chip of something fell to the lab floor and was soon smashed under Steve’s boot as he shifted to his “Captain America is disappointed with your life choices” posture.

“Steve--”

“If you would just for one damn time actually act like an adult--”

“STEVE!”

He finally turned with a glare.

“What!?”

“I think you’re hatching.”

His eyebrows furrowed, more in confusion now than anger, and Darcy pointed to another piece of what looked like a shell that had fallen to the ground. Steve glanced at it, and as the scratching sound at his shield was now audible without the testosterone cat-fight, he pulled the thing off his back to look at what was making the noise.

On top of one of the magnetic struts, there was indeed a partially-hatched shell, still moving and beginning to crack all over.

Everyone watched in disbelief as a small, reptilian-looking head popped out. It looked like it might have been black in color, but it was kind of hard to tell when it was covered in goop.

“The hell!?”

At Tony’s squeal, the small creature let out a squeak and looked around, eyed Steve, and then part slithered, part climbed it’s way up his sleeve to curl around his neck. He stood stock still, jaw clenching and hands splayed by his sides. Darcy couldn’t hold back a cringe as she noticed the trail of slime and imagined whatever the heck that was leaving a nice ring of gunk around the man’s neck.

The earlier commotion had drawn Jane and Thor over, realizing that it was no longer testosterone-fueled arguments.

“What has happened friends?”

No one seemed capable of speech, so it wasn’t until a couple of fingers were pointed at Steve that Thor and Jane could see what was going on.

Thor let out a gasp and whispered under his breath; which of course meant everyone heard him.

“Níðhöggr”

Before and especially after Thor’s arrival, Darcy had studied her Norse mythology. And she’d made sure to have him explain what was true and what was myth. So hearing that name made her extremely apprehensive. Enormous, Yggdrasil-eating serpents were freaking terrifying in her opinion.

“You’re shitting me, right?”

Thor shook his head with a laugh.

“It is not the great serpent, no, but I had thought all of its kind had died long ago.”

He stepped forward, slowly lifting a hand, and murmuring in words that were most certainly not English. Steve became even more frozen when the thing around his neck let out a hiss and curled tighter.

The Asgardian let out a hearty laugh, carefully but enthusiastically grabbing Steve’s arm.

“You are to be congratulated!”

“Okay, what the hell just happened? Am I the only one that is seriously lost?”

Tony looked around. But he only noticed Darcy’s concern and Jane’s attempts to see what was going on around Thor’s shoulder as she tottered on her tiptoes. With a sigh he looked back to Darcy.

“You care to explain, Lewis? Point Break over here seems inclined to fangirl over whatever that thing is. And you’re not trying to become best buddies with it, which is your typical M.O. with anything small and of a stowaway nature.”

It took her a second to do more than stand there with her mouth open, trying to think of a way to explain something that was already making her freak out.

“So. Uh. From what I know, they’re called lindworms. Two legs, body of a snake.”

Thor finally stepped back from the shell-shocked Steve to grin at everyone else.

“Yes, I believe your ancestors would compare them to dragons. They were fierce in battle, and only the mightiest of warriors dared ride them.”

Steve let out a muffled cough.

“They don’t breath fire, do they?”

Thor chuckled.

“No, but their teeth are sharper than any blade I’ve known and they are rather capricious in nature.”

Jane walked over to get a closer look now that Thor had moved out of the way.

“So what now?”

The Asgardian shrugged as if it was obvious.

“It has chosen Steven as keeper. It is a great honor, and we must respect the elder beast’s wishes.”

Darcy was the first to get words out.

“Say what?”

Thor’s brows drew together and he looked around the room, speaking slowly as if explaining something to a child.

“The serpent has chosen Steven as his worldly caretaker. He must now care for it.”

After a couple of careful coughs during which the lindworm didn’t react, Steve finally spoke at his normal volume.

“I’ve never so much as had a pet. How the hell am I supposed to raise,” he gestured helplessly at his neck, “this _thing_.”

Jane finally did more than stare and circle Steve and the creature with a speculative look on her face.

“Do we even know what it eats?”

Darcy snorted.

“With our luck it’s favorite meal is superhero with a dash of ozone.”

Thor laughed, no longer fearing his friends would dishonor the elder beast’s decision to remain with his fellow warrior.

“Nay, friends. They eat meat of cattle as any carnivorous animal.”

Tony choked and Darcy glanced over having forgotten he was there. It was unusual for him to be that quiet. But she saw the wheels turning and figured he was worried about how his tower would hold up to this thing living inside it. Things were dangerous enough with just the human occupants and random less-human occupants who followed Clint home. And Darcy totally meant Deadpool by that.

“So, uh, how big does this thing get?” Tony finally asked.

Darcy mentally patted herself on the back. Nailed it. Nervous billionaire worried about the state of his home (which was somewhat surprising considering his previous antics).

Thor shrugged his enormous shoulders.

“About the size of a small horse.”

“Total?,” Tony squeezed out.

“Nay, in width. I should say the stretch of this room in length.”

Tony let out a noise that sounded remarkably like a whimper. Maybe he was imagining explaining the situation to Pepper. Or who all was going to try and break in to see it if word got out. AKA Deadpool.

With a snicker, Darcy went to grab Jane’s forgotten BLT off her desk. Little guy must be hungry, new to the world and all that. She dismantled the sandwich as she walked over to Steve slowly. After making sure to grab the biggest piece of bacon possible (who know if this thing was inclined to lunge; Darcy had learned that lesson the hard way with her aunt’s cat), and lifted it slowly to the collar of Steve’ uniform where the creature’s head rested.

There was a small hiss, but then the sound of sniffling, and the small head lifted. Now that it had begun to dry, she could see the scales were a dark green color, and the eyes a contrasting yellow. It sniffed a few more times and gingerly leaned closer to the bacon.

Darcy stood still, holding her breath.

After a couple more sniffs and a long look at her, it gingerly took hold of the meat. As soon as she let go, it wolfed it down with minimal chewing and uncurled from Steve’s neck enough to look at her expectantly. Bacon for a first meal was definitely the right way to go.

She shot the still nervous superhero a grin.

“Looks like our new friend doesn’t want to snack on you after all.”

Steve let out a breath and stole another piece of bacon from the plate in her hands to hold it up to his reptilian ward.

It chomped that piece down as quickly as the first and he let out a chuckle.

“I don’t know. Think we can train it to eat Stark?”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I'm [awww-brain-no](http://awww-brain-no.tumblr.com/) on tumblr!


End file.
